With huge success and wider exposure comes the criticism of being labeled as a sellout, as well as fans old and new commenting on the artist losing his original style and sound. Hardstyle artist Headhunterz (aka Willem Rebergen), who has gained traction in the US – signing on with Ultra Records, being a closer at EDC Chicago and EDC Vegas and collaborating with Krewella and Flosstradamus – has become a target for critics regarding the direction of his music. With hardstyle fans begin to question if Headhunterz is even hardstyle anymore, Rebergen speaks up through an op-ed for the Huffington Post Blog.
Acknowledging the buzz with hardstyle, Rebergen brings up the question: “Will hardstyle be the next big thing?” and continues to say, “If there is one thing I expect from this, is that the least it will do, is bring about a change in our genre.”
He discusses coming out of one’s comfort zone to make that change, and openly talks about the dilemma he faces, “…that [fans] want change and want stability at the same time. Use the same kick twice and you’ll get punished. Slow down the bpm and you’ll get called out.”
Rebergen also makes an indirect comment to the critics who call him a sellout: “A so called sell out is somebody trying to please a crowd, by making what they want to hear, so isn’t that a bit paradoxical?” and ends the op-ed by saying, “I will continue to be me, and do my thing.”
There’s no doubt that hardstyle’s sound has evolved, and the new sound is especially noticeable in Headhunterz’s remixes of tracks by Kaskade, Zedd and Hardwell. But as long as he continues to make music based on the direction he wants to go, and isn’t compromising himself to please more fans, we’re supportive of Headhunterz for speaking out and addressing his critics.
Read the full post here.
Immature fans bashing artists for not staying the same on every album, but also bashing them when they do stay the same is getting really fucking old. Let artists do their thing. Stop throwing around the term “sellout”, cause the majority of the people using it don’t know what it actually means. Learn to fucking adapt and grow when a genre or artists sound evolves. Broaden your horizons a little bit. If an artists new sound isn’t to your liking, that’s fine, don’t listen to it. However, when people berate the artist and insult them as if they personally offended you by trying something new or different to their usual thing that THEY as an individual like is absurd. No artist has any obligation what so ever to stick to the genre they started with or to an obligation to deviate from it. People who think that are the prime example of the natural human fear of the unknown and unwillingness to change and adapt. The artists are only obligated to make the music they want, nothing more and nothing less. It just shows that you are not an actual music fan and have a lot of growing up to do if you are one of those haters. The fact that articles like this keep coming up over and over and artists having to keep making statements defending themselves against their own fucking fans shows how big of an issue this is.
Hardstyle sucks.
His kicks have definitely improved over the years, but they’ve always had a very strong and distinct sound. Though I can agree that his overall sound has definitely evolved. When he began he had a very dark and aggressive sound (ie: Scantraxx Roots) , and now it’s usually a more upbeat and rising kind of sound (ie: Dragon Born, Colors). All that being said, I’ve been a solid Headhunterz fan since day one.
I cant til there is more Hardstyle and eventually Hardcore djs coming to the US!
Y’know, I haven’t actually listened to Headhunterz in years… grew out of hardstyle (for the most part) shortly after I discovered psytrance. But I DO understand where he’s coming from. Astrix, from the psychedelic side of things, started out with a super light, cheesy sound, got darker and more minimal, then combined the two in a more epic psy sound around 2004, and then started slowing down his tracks in the last few years, from an uplifting full on sound, into uplifting progressive. While I do prefer the more high tempo psy sounds, his progressive stuff still has that chunky, energetic, slightly epic sound that I like, so even with his change in style, he’s still keeping the core of his music what it is.
And the same applies to Denga & Manus/ Riot 303 vs Observer / Vengeance. They started off with hard banging trance, migrated into a more epic trance sound, and before they retired, they were doing a kind of funky techy trance sound. But again, the core of their sound, that epic, adventurous, balls-to-the-wall attitude, has always remained. And even if the techy stuff isn’t my fave genre, I still dig the epic ‘tude they bring to it, and that their core sound was still there.
When artists can change their genre, without losing the real core of their sound, that I think, is something we should all respect.
If Headhunterz is doing that, then power to him.
As a counterpoint… oldtimer Showtek fans, feel free to correct me, but wouldn’t current Showtek be deemed a sellout in this case, since their sound changed entirely from the older days to their newer days? If they also kept their core intact when they jumped to progressive, feel free to correct me. I may just be talking out my ass on that one.
…But my earlier point remains valid.
i get what he says about bpm and people calling you out. i mean i really like dnb and i do get a little sad when my favorite artist in a genre decides to change their bpm and experiment with their sound some more but honestly there are always going to be more tracks out there that you can find to fit your preference. I recently started delving into subfocus after listening to knife party and expecting a “pendulumesque” drum and bass sound. Genres exist to help people find other similar sounding material.